jeni words

I've moved my blogging activities.

http://wonderling.typepad.com

:)

The lady in the office behind me is clipping her nails. She does it once a day....all I can think is that she has really fast growing nails.

so in the spirit of rut-getting-out-of, I have decided to try a few things. Just a warning: some of these things I have tried before....and obviously not finished. But whatever, it's fun!

1. blog seriously. No easy peasy vox blogging. I think I will design my own site and keep tabs on all my craft/food/life projects.

2. write a book. or novella. I'm no good at fiction, so we'll see how a book based on my own experiences comes out (I've tried this before..ha!)

3. frequent the library and powell's. I need to surround myself with words. I'm starting school in January so I think that going to the library to study might help me beat off the try-to-stay-awake studying blahs.

4. take more pictures! I realize that I've completed dozens of projects with no photo documentation at all. egad!

with all that said this weekend is a good time to start it all. Everyone is out of town or busy and I have sat and sun to myself to begin all the fun. I guess I could start today considering no one is at work and I'm sitting here just waiting for an email to arrive....any email...anything to keep me busy....ugh.

I hate to complain. As much as it seems like I like it I don't. I feel like there's been a lot to complain about lately and I've been holding it in. Now my back hurts. As if all the stuff I need to get out is hiding out in my shoulders and neck. It's awesome. And by awesome I mean it sucks.

Part of me wishes that I could go back to being ignorant, to being how I've always been and not challenging myself. It's really hard to make positive changes when the way you've been is justifiable and comfortable. The hardest part is making those changes while everyone around you stays the same. You start to look at them all in a different way and reevaluate your friendships based on what they bring to the table. Sadly, in most cases they bring their baggage and negativity because that's what friends are for right? It's a hard line to walk.

So how to I keep to the positive changes and save my back from aching? I don't know.

I'm sitting here looking out the window thinking. Wow, it's beautiful outside. But then I think if I was not at work I would be at home, in the dungeon putting away all the miscellaneous boxes of crap that are still laying about. At least I'm getting paid at work.

So the little kitten who found a home at my apartment seems to have made herself a bit of a permanent fixture for the time being. I looked up the kind of breed she might be and she looks like a cross between a Chartreux and a Blue Russian. Both breeds being extremely rare it's unlikely she is really either, but she does have a wooly coat, so I'm saying she's Chartreux. Now Chartreux kittens born in the same year all have the same first letter of their name (for 2006 it was A for 2007 it's B and so on). It's apparently some kind of old tradition. This made my job of naming her a bit easier. I settled on Bernadette because it means "brave as a bear" (she looks like a little bear), but the name Beatrix kept leaping out at me. Every time I would suggest Bernadette to someone they would instantly say, "what about Beatrix?". So there you have it. Beatrix it is!

I'm really really trying to be more earth friendly and therefore budget friendly. The bus is great. My bike is better. The cold and rainy weather have made me lazy on both accounts. staying home and knitting by candlelight is awesome as is reading at Powell's. Both activities I need to do more of instead of watching TV.

I have to get my boss and our accountant something for christmas. It has to be 5 dollars or under. I already made gifts for two of the ladies in the office, so I figure I should make something for the other two. I think I will do a rice/lavender hot pack for my boss (he has a painful knee), but man....our accountant...what do you get the grumpiest person alive? If I could can some sunshine I would...but, the only thing I know about her is she has an obsession with the food we order for seminars and her two beagles are her kids. Homemade doggie treats???

It really is nice outside.

I'm getting super excited to move. For some reason I have this idea that when I have my own place I will suddenly have all this time to hang out in coffee shops and read books while sipping a hazelnut latte, then go back to my place and create some kind of fantastic baked dish. hum. I could do all that now....but for some reason I don't. Moving will make all the difference!

I'm sort of nervous for our show this weekend (Paper Brain). It will be the first time I sing a whole song....It's a lot less pressure when we play all Mike's songs. What if no one likes my song??? what if I choke!? aaaaakkkkk. Kidding. I think it's more nervous excitement. which reminds me of some anatomical facts I heard once. The only difference between being nervous and being excited is mental. Physically the reactions are exactly the same. Crazy.

so here I am, barely surviving that dreaded afternoon 'I could just shut my eyes for a few minutes' hour. I figured a post might help?

I just can't stop!
So there's a craze sweeping the administrative arm here on the hill. It's called freerice.com. You know, that website where you earn ten grains of rice for every vocab word correctly answered. The rice is then donated to the UN's Feed the World project. Adam sent me the link the other day to ease my boredom at work and so I passed it on to the girl in my office and a cohort at my previous job. By the end of the day we were all IMing eachother our current "levels" and comparing the amounts of rice we had earned.

Did we do this because we were excited to feed a starving child? nope. We did it because we are all competative geeks. I found out the next day that the link had been passed on to family and friends who all had similar responses..."it's so addictive, I just can't stop!". way to go freerice, way to go.

I'm going to copy this:

how could I not? it's cuter than anything I could come up with. Good thing I'm a good ape (hardy har)

I wish I could DO this
a year of no-impact living

What we do...
so lately there hasn't been much work. which apparently happens in my new department. So my co-worker and I have invented this new game called 'ecard wars'. Where we send each other insulting ecards. The best part is that I can hear her laughing at them from the other side of the cubicle....which then makes me laugh. Then the thought of the two ladies in the office who have no idea why we're laughing make me laugh even harder. It's quite fun.

so I'm sure everyone's noticed that TV shows have now gone "green". I saw a scrubs commercial lastnight about it and also noticed that the CW's website is green to signify their "going green", which is their partnership with stopglobalwarming.org. Their website actually has a carbon calculator. cool.

I couldn't help but wonder....what are they getting out of this? Most people don't have access to wind-generated or hydropower, but you can buy carbon offsets - or credits -  to reduce your carbon footprint. Lucky for  me, I live in Portland which gets alot of it's energy from use of dams and windfarms. I don't actually have to do anything about this, because PGE does. So when you buy carbon credits you are actually giving companies like PGE money to expand their use of hydro and wind power. Although I think this is wonderful I do have some reservations.

When you buy carbon credits you are most likely paying for some go-between company's overhead. Be wary of where you purchase them because most people believe that their money goes to erecting a new turbine or adding more houses to the carbon friendly power grid. Most of the time the money goes to a fund that the non-profit company has set up to run their program. Just be sure you know exactly what their program is and that you aren't reducing your carbon use; you're just paying a company to do earth friendly work for you.

Am I discouraging anyone from using carbon credits? no way. But, there are plenty of everyday choices you can make to reduce your personal impact on the earth that don't involve you giving your money to a fund.

here are 3 everyday resolutions that I am making to reducing my impact on the environment:

No Driving. Bus, Tram, Streetcar, Lightrail, Bike and Feet only. Alot of American's simply can't do this on a daily basis, but those of us who live in cities with public transportation have no excuse. I chose to live close enough to my work to walk, but I actually find  myself missing the 45 minute commute via bus or subway. I read more, listened to more music and felt like I got more quite time every day.

Refuse paper AND plastic. Almost all grocery stores sell reusable bags on the cheap and most will give you a discount for using them! Even stores like IKEA will sell you a gigantic reusable bag for .25 to lug all of your cheap purchases to the car. Just have to remember that bag for the next shopping trip!

Recycle. Most work places have ample recycling. I work in a scientific research facility and you'd be amazed at what items can go in our recycling from the labs. Not to mention paper, plastic, cans, etc. If your workplace doesn't recycle try contacting your city's waste/recycling department to set that up. It's insanely easy and people will think you are a hero!

On top of these insanely simple solutions I am making an effort to try these things as well.

-No plastic food containers (glass is healthier AND you can reuse it instead of tupperware!)
-buy recycled products (especially those items we use most...TP and laundry detergent)
-use my own coffee cup!

so bottom line. I'm not ready to give up 20 dollars a month to offset someone's budget. I'd rather start with what I can do myself. Although, I'm a little more guilt-free than most since I know most of my power comes from renewable resources. :)